AI citation optimisation.
Be the source, not the also-ran.
Your buyers are asking ChatGPT for a shortlist before they ever visit your site. If you're not in the answer, you're not on the list. Here's what decides it, and what I can and can't change. (Want the DIY version? Read how to get cited in ChatGPT.)
AI tools cite sources they can retrieve (crawlable, indexed in Bing and Google), understand (clear structure and schema), quote (a direct answer in a passage that makes sense on its own) and trust (consistent brand facts, and mentions on sites the model already rates, like G2, Reddit, LinkedIn and industry press).
You can improve all four. Nobody can guarantee a citation, because answers change from one run to the next. What you can do is measure how often you're cited and push that number up, month after month.
How do AI tools choose sources? Slightly different robots.
The details shift every few months. The broad strokes haven't.
ChatGPT
Searches the live web for many questions and leans on a search index (historically Bing's) to find candidates, then quotes the clearest answers. Being indexed and well-structured in Bing matters.
Perplexity
Searches live for almost every question and cites heavily. Fresh, specific, well-structured pages do well. Usually the first place AEO (answer engine optimisation) work shows up.
Google AI Overviews & AI Mode
Built on Google's own index and ranking signals, so classic SEO still carries a lot of weight. Pages that already rank, and answer cleanly, get pulled in.
Copilot & Bing
Runs on Bing. Bing Webmaster Tools now shows how often you're cited in AI answers, which makes it the best free tracker you're probably not using.
Gemini
Draws on Google's index plus its own knowledge of your brand as an entity. Consistent facts across the web help it know who you are.
Everyone else
Claude, Meta AI, and the AI built into every SaaS tool. Most of them retrieve from the same few indexes, so the same fundamentals carry over.
Four levers. Pulled in order.
- Lever 1
Get retrievable
Crawler access, indexing in both Bing and Google, and no rendering traps. If you're not in the index, nothing else matters. Technical & schema covers this.
- Lever 2
Get quotable
Rewrite key pages so the answer leads, each section stands on its own, and specifics (numbers, prices, timelines) are right there. AI quotes passages, so every passage has to make sense on its own.
- Lever 3
Get trusted
Make your brand facts consistent everywhere, then work out where you need to be mentioned: review sites, comparison lists, communities. I map it and tell you; I don't run PR campaigns.
- Lever 4
Track the prompts
We pick the 20 to 50 questions your buyers actually ask, track who gets cited for them, and report how your share moves every month.
What it looks like when it works.
Full disclosure: the first number is from my in-house role leading marketing at a B2B SaaS company, not a Cut the Waffle client. Same playbook, same person running it.
Anyone promising you a citation is guessing.
What I will do
- Measure your real starting point across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and AI Overviews before touching anything.
- Fix what's in your control: your site, your structure, your entity facts.
- Tell you where you need mentions, and roughly how hard each one is to get.
- Report share of answers monthly, including the months it doesn't move.
What I won't pretend
- Guarantee a spot in any AI answer. Answers are probabilistic. They change between runs.
- Game the model. Hidden text, prompt injection and fake reviews get caught and tank your trust.
- Run your PR or Reddit. Not my skillset. I'll point you to people who do it well.
- Promise speed. Three to six months is normal. Faster is a nice surprise, not a plan.
The long reads.
Getting cited: the real answers.
Find out if AI
even knows you exist.
Run the free check first. If the answer is ugly, we'll talk. If it's fine, I'll tell you to keep doing what you're doing.